Pete Sixsmith may be busy on the Saturdays before Christmas but on the weekdays he leaves the work to his helpers and heads off to find a game. Luckily for him there are a few coming up. This one, though it might give Pete a break, is one the rest of us didn’t really want. Was it worth his time? Come back tomorrow for a full report; and while you’re waiting you might ponder on his post-whistle seven word text:

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Salut! Sunderland is written, illustrated and edited by - and principally for - supporters of Sunderland AFC. The site aims to be sufficiently literate and entertaining to appeal to people who do not follow SAFC but enjoy good football writing.

I drove for 6 hours from Swindon to get to the game yesterday, all the way pretty convinced that, following the abandonment on Saturday, I was wasting my time as we were not going to try too hard. I would have given it a miss but the tickets were bought, arrangements made, 1/2 day worked on Saturday morning so I could leave at lunchtime, etc, before the washout.
It was, in fact, better than I thought as we seemed to try until they scored but we certainly gave the impression after that of not wanting extra time.
While I understand the thinking (and the crowd backs up the relative priorities), it hurts, as in year’s gone by we would have taken thousands to Bolton in the next round and really fancied beating a team from the league above. I really hate what the FA has allowed the FA Cup to become.
In fact, Jack Ross had a good night. Portsmouth lost and he learnt a lot about his players:
1) Watmore is not ready to start a league game but is not too far off. Hopefully he will soon remember what he learnt shortly before the first injury which is to sometimes lift his head while he is running with the ball and see where his team mates are.
2) Sinclair is now so short of confidence (and a target for numpties) that he cannot be risked at home and probably away
3) O’Nien can defend as a right back but has an enormous amount to learn about what to do in the other half so is probably not an option
4) Bali Mumba deserves more game time
5) Cattermole is very rusty (or was told to pass sideways and backwards only – I prefer to think the former)
6) We need to find another option to the centre backs bringing the ball out, as neither of them could hit a barn door from 5 yards away. Wycombe almost beat us by pressing everyone else and letting the centre backs give them the ball back and Walsall had obviously seen that and did the same. This has to be fixed, and quickly, as I am sure everyone in the division now knows this simple tactic.
7) McGlaughlin is utter class and needs to be offered an improved contract!

Again, while I can understand and reluctantly agree with the priorities, what last night’s defeat certainly did was turn Saturday into a must not lose game.